


Avengers: Worlds Apart

by Fenix84



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-05
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-28 12:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/991967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fenix84/pseuds/Fenix84
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team has split up and gone their separate ways following the Battle of New York. But when a conspiracy revives an ancient Asgardian threat, every Avenger and a few of their friends must pull together to save the Earth and all of the Nine Realms!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alone Against the World

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be copying a new chapter to Archive of Our Own every few days. If you can't wait, please look for the complete story on FanFiction.net!
> 
> Please let me know what you think. I appreciate all honest feedback!

"Hey! I'm talking to you, Stark!"

"Speak up a little, will ya?" Tony said. He walked through his workshop, searching his cluttered tabletops for the repulsor unit that he had set aside. "Now where did I put that?"

"The least you can do is turn around and look at me."

Tony spun around and smiled at the big monitor mounted on the wall. Agent Maria Hill wasn't smiling back. "And what's the most I can do?"

"Well for starters, you can act like you care about stopping an alien invasion."

"Another one? Huh. I don't think I got that memo." Tony pretended to rub his chin in thought. "Maybe it's in my spam folder."

Hill sighed. "I didn't say we were under attack. I'm saying that we _could_ be. It's a scary universe out there, and we're sitting here blind."

"I did build that new sensor system for you."

"The sensors you wanted to install yourself?" Hill asked. "You told us to wait for you. It's been a whole week."

"Things came up." Tony turned away again as he saw the repulsor unit in the corner of his eye. "I had a scheduling conflict."

"You mean you were playing with yourself in your garage?"

"So you came to watch me play with myself?" Tony grinned, amused at how Hill had walked into that one.

Hill looked down and groaned. "Really, Stark?"

"Well, I haven't really been playing...by myself," Tony said. "I've got JARVIS with me."

"That is correct, sir," JARVIS said.

The computer system was supposed to calm people with its refined English accent, but its disembodied voice had the opposite effect on Agent Hill. "Hey," she said as she jerked her head from side-to-side. "Who's there?"

"Sorry. JARVIS has a tendency to sneak up on people like that." Tony waited as Hill looked around the room in confusion. "You're not gonna find him," he finally said. Hill stopped searching and looked him in the eye. "Computer program."

"Right again, sir," JARVIS said. "Agent Hill, I can assure you that Mr. Stark has been diligently repairing the damage to his Mark VII battle armor."

"Yes, I can see he's distracted," Hill said. "Pretty easy to get bored when you're only working on planetary defense."

"Working?" Tony asked. "I thought I was consulting."

"Then consult," Hill replied.

"I'm sensing a lot of hostility from you, Maria," Tony said. His mind wandered back to the battered suit of armor lying on the table behind him. Stepping around piles of supplies and broken parts, he reached for the welder that he needed. "Can I call you Maria?"

"No."

Tony stopped and looked around again. "Okay, now where are those power couplings?" he whispered to himself. He turned toward the table where he had neatly arranged his most delicate components. His heart jumped as he saw his clumsy robot assistant trying to pick one up for him. "Hey, back off, Dummy!"

"Excuse me?" Hill said.

"No, not you," Tony said. He turned back to the monitor as he threw his arm up to point at the faulty robot. "This guy over here."

Dummy's motors buzzed softly as it lowered its mechanical arm in shame.

"Its flaw is in its artificial intelligence, or lack thereof," Tony said. "I don't know where I went wrong with this one."

"Dummy, huh?" Hill said. Her eyes shifted to the side as something fell and shattered on the floor just offscreen.

A female assistant stumbled by with several large boxes in her arms. "Oh, shoot!" she yelled as she almost tripped and fell. The girl wobbled, before she regained her balance and proceeded across the screen.

"I've got one of my own," Hill said.

Tony picked up the power coupling and turned it over in his hands, looking for any signs of damage. To his relief, he couldn't find any. Tony looked at Dummy and shook his finger at it, before he walked over to where he had laid out the rest of his Mark VII armor.

"I had a Ferrari like this once," he said as began the tedious process of reconnecting the suit's internal systems. "Wrecked it after one test drive. Of course, I was able to just buy another one of those."

"Look, I know you have a lot of things on your hands," Hill said. "I do as well."

Tony put down his tools and turned back to her again. "Am I the only one bothered by the fact that SHIELD is so reliant on me?"

"Trust me, you're not."

"I have to admit, it kind of makes it hard to sleep at night. You guys sure you know what you're doing?"

"Our people are fully qualified to do their jobs," Hill replied.

Her bumbling assistant suddenly tripped and fell against her. "Oh God, I am _so_ sorry!" the girl said.

"Darcy, I am _trying_ to have a video conference with Tony Stark!"

"Did you say –" The girl's mouth fell open as she turned toward the camera. She was young and pretty, with glasses and long brown hair. "Oh, hi Mr. Stark." Darcy smiled as she awkwardly raised her hand and waved at him.

Tony smiled back at her. He liked the attention, even though he didn't intend to take things any further with her.

Agent Hill turned and glared at Darcy. "Get back to work, Ms. Lewis."

"Okay, okay." Darcy gave Tony one last look before she rushed offscreen again.

"Now that you've mentioned it," Tony said, "we do have some other things on our plate."

"You mean studying Loki's scepter?" Hill asked.

"The scepter was scheduled to arrive at Stark Industries' main laboratory three hours ago," JARVIS said. "The delivery has yet to be completed."

"Thanks, JARVIS," Tony said, before he turned back to Agent Hill. "So I guess SHIELD had a...scheduling conflict?"

"Yes, well...the Helicarrier had to make an unexpected intervention. All of our Quinjets were tied up."

"What kind of intervention?" Tony asked.

"That's classified," Hill said. "Just know that SHIELD has things under control. The scepter will arrive in the next couple of days."

"At my lab, right?" Tony asked.

"Of course. Is there a reason why you insist on keeping it there?"

"Hey, you've got to know how to separate work..." Tony said, as he motioned toward his armor. "...from..." He looked around at the walls of the garage that now served only as a workshop and armory. "...home."

Tony shrugged, before he came up with a better reason. "Besides, I'd rather not have your agents hanging out at my house. Well, except for Agent Romanoff. She was tolerable. For a while. Hey, why isn't she the one talking to me?"

"What, are you lonely for her company?"

"It's just that it's kind of hard to connect with someone through a TV screen."

"We are not connecting."

"That's what I just said," Tony replied. "You know, when Agent Romanoff wants something, she comes and sees you herself." He smiled as he saw the irritation on Hill's face. Was it resentment, jealousy, or something else? Whatever it was, she needed to lighten up.

"I am _not_ Agent Romanoff."

"By the way, where is she right now? Or Captain Steve? I haven't seen them since -"

"Their current location is classified," Hill said.

"That gonna be your go-to answer for all of my questions?"

"It depends on what you're asking."

"Okay, one more," Tony said. "Why are you giving the scepter to me? Why not Dr. Selvig?"

"Dr. Selvig was _brainwashed_ by that thing," Hill said. "You don't come out something like that without a few scars."

"No..." Tony said as he thought back to the recent crisis. He had no snappy comments to add this time. "You don't."

"Thought I'd give him some time to recover..."

"They're wrong about you, Hill," Tony said as he forced himself to sound more upbeat. "You're not _entirely_ heartless."

She responded with the closest thing she had to a smile. "Thanks for reminding me."

"Sir, there is a situation at Stark Industries," JARVIS suddenly said.

"What was that?" Tony asked.

"Please direct your attention to the television," JARVIS said. The big flat screen next to the conferencing monitor suddenly turned on and switched to CNN. "It appears that your main laboratory has been overrun by terrorists."

Tony stood in stunned silence as he watched his own lab building appear on TV. A man dressed in black leaned out from a window and sprayed his assault rifle at the security forces lined up outside of the building. As the guards fled, another man leaned out to fire a rocket-propelled grenade into the ground behind them.

"Nearly thirty employees have been taken as hostages," the news anchor said. "The intruders have yet to state any demands. All we know is that they are heavily armed, and more than willing to hold their ground."

"Looks like another scheduling conflict," Hill said.

"Good thing you were late with that delivery." Tony set down his tools before he walked over to a black tiled area in the middle of his garage.

He stood still as robotic arms emerged from the floor to encase him in his Mark IV armor. Tony straightened his posture and held his arms out to make things easier for them. The robots literally had to screw him into the armor. He hated the suit's lack of portability, and the way it tied him down and made him dependent on those machines. A crisis could happen at any time, whether he was at home or not.

The process was obsolete, and he had thought that he would never have to bother with it again. Not after all of the time he had spent developing the Mark VII's faster, more sophisticated autonomous application capability. Unfortunately, the Mark VI and VII were still inoperable after his battles with Loki and the Chitauri. He would have to make do with older technology for the time being.

"You can install those sensors without me," Tony said. "I'll fly over sometime to see how bad you guys screwed up."

"Go kick some ass already," Hill said.

Tony gave her a confident smile as the robots assembled the helmet around his head. He waited until the faceplate flipped down in front of him before he allowed himself to exhale.

* * *

As soon as he left the tunnel leading out from his garage, Tony pulled up and began climbing toward the sky. He could already notice the limitations of his armor.

His suits weren't just inventions to him. They were works of art. And as the artist, he was far more aware of the flaws and shortcomings of his work. Details that most people failed to notice were clear and apparent to him.

The Mark IV carried fewer weapons than the Mark VII did, and it lacked the newer model's secondary repulsors. It had less thrust, and therefore less speed and acceleration. Maneuverability was inferior as well.

Most importantly though was the fact that it had been designed for use with an outdated palladium energy source. Because of that, it was unable to tap into the full output of his current arc reactor. Everything the suit did had to be slower and more measured than what he had grown accustomed to.

Perhaps he was being far too hard on it. After all, the Mark IV was the suit that he had used to bring about world peace in the months after he had come out as Iron Man. It was just a little over two years old, and it was still far better than what many of his enemies could throw at him. In most realistic scenarios, its limits wouldn't even be tested.

Still, Tony couldn't shake the nagging thought that he was stuck using suboptimal equipment. While the Mark IV's disadvantages went over the heads of the awestruck citizens on the street, even a small deficit in capability could mean the difference between life and death.

* * *

"Tell me what you've got, JARVIS." Tony lowered his head as he began his final descent toward Stark Industries. A clear visual of his buildings was still more than a minute away. However, his suit's sensors were already scanning the area around them.

"Sensors are detecting six armored vehicles near the main entrance of the laboratory."

Tony's holographic HUD, or heads-up display, lit up with rotating images of the vehicles along with an abundance of information about them.

"Hmm," Tony said as he looked over the pictures. The vehicles were equipped with a variety of machine guns, cannons, and missiles, but they all shared the same basic hull. They looked like a bunch of smaller, flatter battle tanks. "Those aren't the Army's, are they?"

"They're yours, sir."

"Uh, you sure about that?"

"Quite so," JARVIS said. "These unmanned vehicles belong to a product line you purchased from the now-defunct Horgan Defense Corporation."

"When was this?"

"Right before your trip to Afghanistan. Shortly before you ceased all involvement in the defense industry."

"So you're saying I bought these things and _forgot_ about them?" Tony asked.

"Precisely," JARVIS replied. "These vehicles have been in storage for the last two years. The terrorists seem to have taken control of them."

"And I was afraid this was gonna be too easy." Tony slowed as the laboratory and the vehicles came into view.

"I strongly recommend that you maintain airspeed for a strafing run."

"Lighten up, JARVIS. Let's see if the investment was worth my money." He stopped and hovered thirty feet above the drone vehicles. Surely, his Mark IV armor was enough to handle something like this. He had to see that it could.

The drones' turrets quickly swiveled in his direction. Automatic fire erupted from their cannons, filling the air with a series of deafening cracks.

"Targeting could use some work," Tony said. He weaved through streams of thirty-millimeter rounds, twisting and turning as he powered up the repulsor in his right hand.

Tony opened his palm and fired into the nearest drone. The shot punched right through the top of the vehicle, which exploded in a brilliant fireball that sent its turret flipping into the air. "Top armor's pretty thin as well. I spent money on this stuff?"

"Do take this more seriously, sir," JARVIS said.

The armor's warning system suddenly beeped. Behind him, the air defense drone had unleashed eight missiles in quick succession.

"Climb!" Tony yelled. "Climb!"

The repulsors in his boots roared as they jolted him into the sky. "Faster, JARVIS," Tony said. "Full power to thrusters!"

"I did tell you to maintain airspeed."

"Alright already! Spare me the lecture!" Tony's eyes darted to the threat display on the lower left of his HUD. The nearest missiles were almost close enough detonate. Had he been in one of his newer armors, he could have easily outmaneuvered those missiles and left them in his dust. But he wasn't, and those damn things were gaining on him fast.

"Flares!" he cried out. Circular flare dispensers in his hips popped out and sprayed a trail of white-hot decoys behind him. The two nearest missiles flew directly into the streaking fire and detonated prematurely. The other six kept coming though.

Tony released more decoys as he banked and turned. The missiles swerved with him as if the flares weren't even there. "It's not working!"

"These missiles use advanced imaging infrared seekers. Only a series of flares deployed at the proper range and angles will break their locks."

"Any more surprises?" Tony asked.

"Not at the moment, sir."

Tony cut his main thrusters for a second as he fired his hand repulsors to reverse direction. The missiles overshot him, but they immediately adjusted their course to continue pursuit.

"Good," Tony said. "Because I've got one of my own."

He straightened himself to cut air resistance as he power-dived back down toward the drones. "These missiles are fast. But let's see how they take a hit."

"This course of action is ill advised," JARVIS said.

"Got anything better?!" Tony clenched his teeth as he saw the drones fire on him again with their cannons. One round struck him in the shoulder and sent him into an awkward spin. "Ah!" he yelled as he fought to regain control. He stabilized himself after several dizzying seconds and pressed on.

His armor was too strong for those cannons to stop him just like that. The same couldn't be said of those missiles. One of them exploded behind him, a victim of friendly fire.

The vehicles, and the ground, were approaching with frightening speed. "Make sure the filtration system's working," Tony said. "I might need it in a few seconds."

Angling his hand repulsors, he pulled up a split-second before he would have hit the ground. The missiles followed his lead, as he turned hard and fast around the drones. He flew so near the vehicles that he nicked his leg on one before he smashed through the cannon of another. Similar closeness to the vehicles triggered the missiles' proximity fuzes. One-by-one, they exploded behind him.

"Wooh!" Tony yelled as he pulled up after the fourth explosion. He spun in celebration as he rose into the air. Though the battle wasn't over yet, he couldn't help but smile underneath his helmet.

"Sir, there is still one more missile left."

"Huh?"

The missile exploded behind him before he could say another word. Tony felt his limbs drag as his torso was thrust forward by the force of the blast. His HUD flickered as he fell. He couldn't see or feel it, but he heard the sound of glass shattering around him.

Tony hit the ground hard and skipped several times before he came to a sliding stop. He got up and staggered, as his HUD came back online.

"It seems we are in the lobby of your laboratory," JARVIS said.

Bullets suddenly rained down from all sides. Tony flinched from the initial shock, but he quickly gathered himself and looked up. Red circles appeared on his HUD to highlight more than twenty enemies, many of whom were firing on him from the second floor.

"You would do well to return fire, sir."

"Yeah, JARVIS! I know!" He fired repulsor blasts at the two nearest gunmen, before he swung around to look for bigger threats.

He had done so just in time to see a pair of RPGs leave their launch tubes. "Whoa!" Tony yelled as he leaped to his right. He narrowly avoided the explosions, which sent up a shower of floor fragments around him. Tony rolled back up and shot the terrorists before they could load any more rockets.

"Someone's behind you," JARVIS said.

"Let him come," Tony said as he kept firing away at the men above. He had them on the run. The men who weren't shot began to scatter in confusion, as each repulsor blast struck with the force of a grenade.

"You might want to pay attention to this. He's powering up some type of device."

Tony turned around, but the only thing he saw was the blinding white light that washed over him. "Ah!" he yelled as he closed his eyes and raised his hands to his face. He could already feel the temperature inside of his suit rise significantly. The light must have been extremely hot in order to do that through his armor's heat shielding and insulation.

"It's some kind of energy weapon, sir."

It didn't let up either. Instead, the light narrowed into a more intense beam that began to melt away the outer layers of his chest plate. Tony positioned his arms to take some of the heat, for what little good it would do. He stumbled and fell to the floor, before the beam thankfully stopped.

A sense of dread came over him as he looked down at his left hand. The surface of his gauntlet had liquefied, and the metal ran like blood down his fingers and onto the floor.

The energy weapon fired again before he could check his chest plate and the life sustaining arc reactor that it housed. Tony braced himself as he raised his arms again in feeble defense. He saw sparks fly as his suit's electrical connections severed. The armor hadn't been breached yet, but the temperature inside had become unbearable.

"Weapons check," Tony said. He had to say something to keep from falling into panic, even though he doubted that he could even shoot back at this point.

"Repulsors down," JARVIS said. "Missiles down. Micro-munitions launchers, down."

"Flares!" Tony said in desperation.

"Flare dispensers operational. Unfortunately sir, you are out of flares."

Sparks erupted from his chest piece. Tony fell to his knees and screamed as he felt something break inside his body. His HUD flickered and died, shrouding him in the darkness of his helmet.

"Your arc reactor has taken damage," JARVIS said. "Power systems failing. Switching to emergency power reserves. Losing network connection. I'm sorry, sir. I can't stay here with yooouuu..." JARVIS's voice dragged out for several seconds before it stopped altogether.

It was so hot inside the armor that Tony was afraid that he'd faint. He reached up and pressed a button on the side of his helmet, which popped open his faceplate. The hot air rushed out, and it became easier for him to breathe. His chest began to hurt though...

Tony stayed on his hands and knees, gasping. Everything around him had become so quiet and still. Besides his own tortured breaths, all he could hear were the footsteps of a lone man walking up to him. That man began to laugh in a very satisfied way.

"Not so smart now, are ya?"

Tony looked up and saw a burly, middle-aged man standing in front of him. It was his old rival Bruno Horgan.

The former billionaire had swapped his business attire for a green jumpsuit. He was also wearing an Army helmet and a sand-colored Kevlar vest, along with matching gloves and combat boots. The getup wasn't fooling anyone. Horgan looked like an old guy trying to play soldier.

More intimidating was the circular device strapped to his chest. A thick power conduit connected that device to his belt, which carried a control unit and multiple power cells.

"These guys aren't mine," Horgan said. "They had their own reasons for coming here. But when they offered me a shot at you, I just had to come along and take it."

"It's been a while, Bruno," Tony said as he tried to get up. "How's the wife?" The last he had heard, she had run off with a reality TV star.

"You're a funny guy, Stark." Horgan gave Tony a big boot to the face that sent him sprawling on his back. "Always good for a laugh."

Tony rubbed his face as he tried to crawl away. He was scared, but he knew that he had to stay cool and keep Horgan talking. He had no other options but to try to buy some time.

"You sound stressed out, Bruno. But really, don't you think this anger is just a _little_ bit unhealthy?"

"Not as unhealthy as you're about to be."

"Trust me, I know someone who really lets this stuff build. It's not good to bottle it up."

"That's why I'm gonna let it all out on you," Horgan said. "You ruined my company, Stark. Put me outta business."

"It was competition," Tony said. "You try your best, I try my best, it's all we can do, ya know?"

"You got together with Justin Hammer, didn't you? He bought me out and then you swooped in to grab the rest. Because you _always_ need to have more."

"That's not entirely accurate," Tony said. Looking around, he saw that the only other people there were on Horgan's side. There were no indications that help was on the way. The police and his security guards had probably decided to stand by and let Iron Man handle it all. "And I don't know if you've heard, but I don't work in the industry anymore."

"Yeah, you had the gall to quit after climbing over me to the top. Like you did it all out of spite."

"Really Bruno, it wasn't about you."

Horgan scowled as he tapped the device on his chest. Looking at it again, Tony got the impression that it had been strapped there as a mockery of his own chest piece. "I call this little baby the Melter," Horgan said. "Designed it for door breaching and anti-vehicle work. The wide beam mode made it perfect for urban pacification though."

"Don't remember seeing that in the field," Tony said.

"Nah, a bunch of sissies in Washington thought it might violate 'human rights' or something." He paused as his face contorted with rage. "Admit it. All of you were out to get me."

"You really believe that," Tony said. He looked up at Horgan and recognized someone who felt alone in the world. By misfortune or his own hand, he had lost everything of value in his life. "I get it though. It's pretty easy to believe."

"Please, elaborate."

"You feel pressure from every side. You've got no one to turn to, so you turn to yourself. But it's not enough, because it seems like the whole world is out to get you. I know what that's like."

Horgan stood there and looked at him for several seconds before he responded. "Hmm. You almost sound genuine." His mouth suddenly widened into a wicked grin. "It doesn't change a thing though." Tony heard the Melter charging up as Horgan turned one of the dials on his belt all the way.

"They say that revenge is a dish best served cold," Horgan said. "I disagree."

_**To be continued in Chapter 2: Dangerous Unknowns** _


	2. Dangerous Unknowns

Tony held his breath as the Melter lit up like a miniature sun. _This is it_ , he thought.

Images of the few people closest to him flashed before his eyes. He saw Pepper, smiling with affection as she put him in his place. He saw Rhodey, dressed in his Air Force blues and pretending to disapprove as they knocked back cups of sake. He even saw Happy, faithfully carrying his things as he walked off to indulge himself with frivolous strangers.

For some reason, his mind kept going, sweeping through those memories and onto others. Tony didn't know why, but he also saw Rogers, Banner, Romanoff, Barton, and Thor. They had been his allies. His friends...

He didn't know what was more pathetic. Was it the fact that he hardly knew these people? Or the fact that none of them were going to see him, as he died alone?

"It's okay if you scream," Horgan said.

A glass window shattered above, and gunfire suddenly broke out all around the room. Horgan fell back as he took a couple rounds in the chest. Tony didn't waste any time to check if his enemy had survived. Instead, he quickly blocked his exposed face as a gunman on the first floor opened fire on him.

Tony turned around, and the bullets clanged off of his back. _Crap, now what?_ All of his weapons were down, and his suit was practically running on fumes. Looking around, his eyes shifted to a group of armchairs standing near the side of the lobby.

He ran for the chairs, as men yelled and rockets exploded behind him. The chairs were padded, but they were heavy enough to hurt someone with. Tony snatched up the nearest one, before he turned around and hurled it at his attacker. The big piece of furniture tumbled through the air, before it came down and flattened the unlucky henchman.

"God Tony," Rhodey said as he landed nearby in his War Machine armor. He got in front to shield Tony from harm as he returned fire with his deadly machine guns. "Can't you stay still so I can get you outta here?"

"Running's not my style," Tony said.

"But getting your ass kicked is?"

"Okay, so I didn't bring my 'A' game," Tony said as he threw another chair.

"Yeah, I can see that!" Rhodey yelled. "Just stand back, alright? I got this!"

Something abruptly exploded through the wall behind them. As Rhodey kept shooting at the terrorists, Tony turned and saw the last drone vehicle rolling through the newly formed hole in the wall. It was an anti-tank variant, armed with several laser-guided missiles. The target designator mounted on top of it turned and shined a red laser beam on the floor beneath their feet.

"Rhodey?" Tony said.

"Yeah?"

"Move!" Tony grabbed his friend and shoved him aside. He then leaped in the other direction, narrowly escaping one of the drone's missiles as it detonated into a massive fireball.

Tony hit the floor rolling. He came to a stop and looked across the lobby. Rhodey had turned his arm-mounted machine guns on the drone while his robotic minigun continued to blast away at the terrorists behind him. His barrage looked impressive, but his bullets bounced harmlessly off of the vehicle's armor.

Ignoring Rhodey's guns, the drone spun its turret to reengage Tony. Clearly, Horgan had programmed the thing to prioritize him above all else. Tony raised his left arm and opened its flaps as the drone fired on him with its secondary machine gun. The bullets sparked as they struck the metal just inches from his face. "Hey Rhodey!" Tony yelled.

"Yeah?"

Looking down, Tony saw the vehicle's targeting laser pointed at his feet. He knew what would be coming next. "Where's that nice girl I set you up with?!" Tony took off running as he said that, forcing the vehicle's turret to turn after him. It was only a matter of moments before it would plot a new targeting solution.

"Who?"

"You know, after the divorce?!"

"Oh, that one!" Rhodey yelled, as he stopped firing with his guns.

Tony kept running as the drone sprayed more bullets at him, not daring to look back as Rhodey deployed his new shoulder-mounted missile launcher. The drone's laser flitted along the floor in front of Tony's feet. He jumped and covered his head as he heard a missile launch. Thankfully, the drone exploded instead of him.

"Ha, you really know how to pick 'em!" Rhodey said. He suddenly screamed as he took Horgan's heat ray in the back.

"Hey Bruno!" Tony yelled. He ran forward and leaped with the aid of his boot repulsors. His suit had just enough energy left to get him to within arm's reach of his enemy. Tony grabbed the Melter's power conduit and yanked it out, tearing the entire device from Horgan's chest. Horgan stood there and gasped. "Hope your cellmate likes to hear you bitch." Tony decked him before he could reply.

"Nice one," Rhodey said as he pushed himself up from the floor. Protected by thick steel add-on armor, his suit had sustained only minor damage. "Guess we're even."

"Learn to keep count," Tony said. "I saved you twice today." He suddenly bent over and fell to the floor as he felt a sharp pain in his chest.

After running for several minutes on a damaged arc reactor, the electromagnet in his chest had finally died. Without it, the shrapnel embedded in his heart had begun to sink into that vital organ. Tony felt as if he were being torn apart from within. His blood flow slowed, as the simple beating of his heart turned into an excruciating struggle.

"Tony!" Rhodey's metal-clad feet pounded against the floor as he rushed over to help. "I gotcha, buddy." He wrapped his arms around Tony and helped him up, but Tony's legs had gone too limp for him to stand again.

"Quick...Get me..." Tony said. He leaned on Rhodey's shoulder as he clenched his teeth and worked up the strength to finish his sentence. "...home."

"Stay with me, Tony. I'll get you there as fast as I can."

"The...the hostages," Tony said as he remembered why he had come. His thoughts had slowed, as his brain faded with the rest of his body.

Rhodey took hold of Tony's legs and lifted him up horizontally. He then fired up his thrusters and flew the two of them out through the same broken window that Tony had entered through. "Don't worry about it. We took down most of the terrorists. The police can handle the rest."

* * *

"You gonna make me carry you all the way to bed?" Rhodey asked.

"Sure..." Tony said. Even in his muddled state, he understood that Rhodey was just trying to keep him talking. He knew how hard his friend was straining to sound upbeat.

"Feels like we're in college again."

Tony almost laughed, but the pain stopped him short. "Wait...no bed."

"Stay with me," Rhodey said.

"Garage instead..."

"Hang on, we're almost there." Rhodey tightened his grip as he descended toward Tony's futuristic Malibu home.

"Hurry," Tony said. Through half-open eyes, he saw a blurry view of the lights running along the tunnel to his garage. They had such a ghostly, dreamlike quality to them...

"Don't you die on me!"

The lights became unbearably bright all of a sudden. Tony squinted hard as Rhodey came to a sudden stop and landed on the floor of his garage. The blinding light pierced his eyelids, making it so hard for him to rest...

"Lay Mr. Stark on the black tiles," JARVIS said. "Quickly."

Tony felt himself shaking up and down as Rhodey stomped his way to that area. The pain in his chest was overwhelming. He couldn't take it much longer...

"Oh my God," he heard Pepper say.

Rhodey laid him down on the floor, which opened up for the robotic arms that could get him out of his damn suit. Lying flat on the floor, Tony wasn't exactly in the proper position for them. The robots twisted, strained, and tugged, as they awkwardly removed his armor piece-by-piece.

"Out of the way!" Pepper cried as she rushed to his side.

With great effort, he lifted his eyelids enough to see her. He wanted to say something to her, but he found himself no longer able to talk.

"Hold still, Tony. Please..." She grabbed the edges of his ruined arc reactor and began to pry it out. Her hands moved forcefully and efficiently, but even Tony could feel the tension that she barely contained. The reactor slid out, and Pepper tossed it aside without giving it a second look. She then picked up a replacement unit and brought it over to the gaping hole in his chest. Pausing for the first time since she had come to him, she took a moment to look into his eyes before she pushed it in.

"Yaaaaah!" Tony yelled, as he felt a jolt throughout his entire body. Moments later, the pain in his heart began to recede. Finally free of his agony, Tony relaxed his neck and allowed his head to rest upon the floor. A smile began to form on his face even as he lay there gasping, matching the one he could see on Pepper's face.

"I'll be upstairs," Rhodey said. "You two look like you could use some alone time."

"Thank you," Pepper replied. She turned back to Tony and stroked his arm. "Now what would you do without me?"

"Guess I'd hire another assistant. She'd have to be loyal, but smart enough to save me from myself. And oh yeah, beautiful. Definitely beautiful. You looking for a raise or something?"

"We can talk about that later," Pepper said, before she leaned in and pursed her lips.

"Lay it on me," Tony said. He closed his eyes and waited for her tender, soothing kiss. He got a bundle of metal tools dropped on his face instead.

"Ow! God, Dummy! How many times is it gonna be?!"

* * *

The pillow was soft, and it felt good to have Pepper curled up behind him with her arm wrapped around his waist. Despite that, Tony still found it impossible to sleep. He had lain on his side for hours, staring at the wall as he pondered his recent brush with death.

His Mark IV suit had failed him and joined the scrap pile that was the rest of his armor collection. Worse yet, it had failed against Bruno Horgan of all enemies. Forget evil gods, alien invaders, or rampaging gamma monsters. He couldn't even take a disgruntled loser with a victim mentality.

Luckily, Rhodey had been there to bail him out. But he couldn't always count on luck or Rhodey to be there for him. Rhodey had said as much before he had left. "I'm flying out to Yemen. Try not to get yourself killed in the next two weeks." His friend had said that in jest, but those words had haunted Tony nonetheless.

And while the Mark IV may have failed, it had at least been better than nothing. Tony felt naked without it now.

He gently slid out from under Pepper's arm, and he tried his best not to wake her as he got out of bed. She slowly retracted her arm as she rolled over onto her own pillow with a pleasant look on her face. The sight was almost enough to tempt him into lying back down with her.

Turning to the clock near the bed, Tony saw that it was two forty-eight AM. _Good_ , he thought. He had a few hours to work with before Pepper could wake up and ask him about his behavior. Tony put on his slippers, before he quietly snuck out of the bedroom and walked downstairs to his workshop.

"Sleepwalking again?" JARVIS asked.

"No. Just wide awake." Tony walked toward the table where he had laid out the Mark VII. He was exhausted, and he had to focus to keep himself from stepping on the junk littering the floor on his way there. "You can come out now, Dummy."

The robot spun with joy as it escaped the corner where he had sent it. It rolled to his side, and Tony removed the dunce cap that he had tied on top of it. "Alright, just stay outta the way," he said to it. Tony knew that he'd regret setting Dummy loose in the workshop again. But the robot was good at making things livelier, if nothing else. He didn't want to work alone and in complete silence.

Dummy did its job, knocking things over and forcing Tony to shoo it away several times over the next two hours. The recurring intrusions provided the additional benefit of keeping him awake. Tony looked over his suit and pushed himself on every time he felt like stopping.

The Mark VII had been designed for all-out war. The armor was filled with weaponry far in excess of its predecessors, and it had hardpoints on which even more munitions could be attached. Besides its enhanced repulsor units, it possessed triple continuous beam laser modules in each wrist, armor-piercing missiles in the forearms, dozens of miniaturized self-guiding missiles in the shoulders, and big air-to-ground missiles in the thighs.

It had not been enough. None of his toys had been able to penetrate the armor of the Chitauri Leviathans that had flown through New York during that fateful day. He had to fly around helplessly, watching the beasts plow through skyscrapers while waiting and hoping for Thor or the Hulk to arrive. That battle had shown him just how small he was.

Tony had never believed in myths and magic before. He hadn't thought much of biological enhancements either. After the Hulk's battle with the Abomination, he had arrogantly told General Ross that his technology was far more reliable. He had been so sure of himself then – and now he wasn't.

Fixing the Mark VII was a necessity that he hated to spend his time on. Not because of all the sleep that he was losing, though that certainly wasn't helping things. Tony wanted to finish the repairs already so that he could move on to more interesting projects.

He had started and stopped work on dozens of new designs, each of which would make the Mark VII look primitive in comparison. But besides a few holographic blueprints and newly fabricated test components, none of the new suits existed as anything more than concepts. He found it hard to concentrate, as he jumped through an ever-growing number of projects without actually finishing any one.

He had started on a golden suit with an advanced mental interface, composed of many separate components that could all fly onto his body at a mere thought. The initial idea for that one had come to him before he had ever suited up in the Mark VII. He hadn't liked the scan bracelets that were required so that the Mark VII could even find him.

To get to those bracelets before the Chitauri attack, he had needed to confront and stall Loki. Tony had spoken then with his usual humor and confidence, but underneath it all, he had been terrified. Facing off against a murderous god who could kill him in an instant was top five on the list of the craziest things he had ever done.

So was flying a nuclear missile into outer space to attack an alien fleet that he couldn't even reach. Because of that, Tony had begun planning on a deep space flight suit, with more efficient repulsor thrusters and enough fuel reserves to keep them going. Tony didn't know if he'd ever have to fly into space again, but he wanted a suit like that just in case.

Every new suit of his would contain technological advancements, but one of them would _look_ vastly different even to laymen who couldn't tell the Mark III from the Mark VI. That suit was shaping up to be an ugly bruiser – big and boxy, with no regard for aesthetics – that traded versatility for armor protection and raw strength. Tony liked to think of it as his "Hulkbuster," but he could only hope that it could hold a candle to the real thing.

Hours could be spent thinking about each of his ongoing projects. But in general, the common theme running through most of them was _more firepower_. SHIELD had asked him to build a new early warning system for them, and he was frightened of what it might reveal. Bigger and better guns were needed if he were to prevail against all of the unseen threats lurking in the shadows or in the dark reaches of space.

He sighed as he continued with his repairs. He had so many tasks ahead of him, and so little time with which to work with...

"I knew you were down here," Pepper suddenly said.

Tony dropped his tools and snapped up straight. "When did you wake up?" he asked as he turned around to face her.

"When you got out of bed. At first, I thought you were going to the bathroom. Then, I thought you'd be back in a little while...It's been three hours, Tony."

He turned his head and looked at the clock on the wall. She was right. "I'm my own boss," he said. "It's not like I have to sleep and wake up for anyone."

"I'm not your boss," Pepper said. "But I think I've earned the right to have a say in what you do to yourself."

"So what are you saying?"

"That I'm worried about you. This is the third night in a row you've done this."

"I have to," Tony said. "There's nothing else for me right now. Look at what Horgan did to me yesterday. Next time that happens, it could be the last. You know that, Pepper. The world's gotten a lot more dangerous since New York."

She took a deep breath and shook her head. "The difference between then and now is the people you had around you."

"You talking about my team of super friends? I haven't seen them in a month."

"And that's your problem, Tony. You can stay down here killing yourself day in and day out. But sooner or later, you're gonna need someone to lean on."

"You don't think I can do it?"

"No one can do it all alone," Pepper said as she took a step forward. "Please, there are people who care about you. Don't run away from them."

"They've already run away from me," Tony said. "Half of them are busy running black ops for SHIELD. Thor went home. And Bruce –"

"What about Bruce? Sounded like the two of you were close."

"It was only a few days," Tony said. "We haven't talked much since then. I don't even know where the guy is."

"Well, it sounds like you're not trying hard enough." Pepper smiled as she picked up a newspaper from one of the tables. It hadn't moved from the spot where she had dropped it the day before. "Open your eyes," she said as she tossed it to him. "It's on the front page."

Tony looked down at the newspaper. A picture of a familiar green giant filled the page under a headline that read "Hulk Saves NYC Subway Passengers."

"Hmm," he said as he skimmed through the article. "I know that station. It's not far from my tower."

"He was underground, so he couldn't just jump away," Pepper said. "Witnesses said he just disappeared into the tunnels. Bruce might still be around."

"It's a long shot if you think we can still find him. He's very good at slipping away."

"There's always a chance," Pepper said. "But whether we find him or not, it'd be good to go away to New York for the weekend."

"Just the weekend?

"We'll make it a _long_ weekend."

"Sounds like fun," Tony said.

"It should be. And after you've unwound, we'll also have some time for other things."

"You still think we can make it work?" Tony asked. "I mean the tower, and getting everyone together, all without SHIELD?"

"We can try."

"Hmm," Tony said as he turned and looked at the Mark VII again. "I don't know about this."

"Sir, you have already completed the most complicated repairs," JARVIS said. "Your robots may lack your brilliance, but they are quite capable of finishing the process for you."

"There goes your excuse," Pepper said with a smile. She walked up to him and took hold of his arm.

"What about SHIELD?" Tony asked, standing firm as she tried to lead him out of the workshop. "They were supposed to send me something."

"SHIELD won't have any trouble finding us," Pepper replied. "If it's so important, they can send it to your tower."

"Okay, you got me," Tony said as he finally smiled again. He looked around the room as JARVIS activated his other robotic assistants. "Take care of it, boys." The machines raced toward the Mark VII all at once.

"Come on," Pepper said. "Let's get some sleep already."

Tony followed her toward the stairs, but fortunately, his instincts made him look back one last time. "Uh-uh, Dummy! Not you!"

* * *

Jane Foster gulped down the last of her Red Bull, before she set her can down next to all of the others that she had gone through. It had been a long sixteen hours of work.

Days were always long at SHIELD's secondary headquarters, known simply as "the Bunker." The hardened installation had been built into a mountainside of the Eastern Rockies, located in a remote part of Wyoming. According to its specs, the place could withstand a thirty-megaton nuclear strike. Survivability had been the main concern during the Bunker's initial planning. Unfortunately, a part of that meant seclusion from population centers that would be the first targets during any invasion.

The Bunker's construction had begun years ago, but SHIELD had never felt much pressure to complete it until after the Chitauri invasion. The Helicarrier had almost gone down right before that attack, and Director Fury knew that SHIELD couldn't risk being decapitated again during the next big crisis. Despite the victory in New York, he decided to divert all available resources into finishing the Bunker.

Agent Hill was given command of the new installation, and hundreds of SHIELD personnel were hastily reassigned there. Fury even saw fit to draft civilians like Jane and Darcy, in order to fulfill the sudden new manpower requirements. Making the base operational had been a difficult task, made even harder by the fact that its workforce had been uprooted from dozens of different places.

Jane didn't mind the work. She knew from firsthand experience how serious the alien threat was, and she was more than willing to apply her scientific knowledge to the cause. What she did mind was the new task that she had received that day without prior notice, right at the end of her already long shift.

Tony Stark had built a new distributed sensor network for SHIELD, capable of quickly detecting abnormal gamma radiation signatures throughout the world. It was far more sensitive and efficient than the improvised solution that Dr. Bruce Banner had come up with during SHIELD's search for Loki and the Tesseract. Stark's system included many high-powered spectrometers at ground installations throughout the world, as well as communications satellites and a massive data processing center at the Bunker itself.

The system was magnificent, but it was also composed of many enormous parts. Physically installing it was arguably a job for Iron Man. But Stark had been too preoccupied to show up and help all week, before the attack on Stark Industries yesterday. That incident caused even more problems, as Stark was sidelined and SHIELD had to reevaluate its plans to send Loki's scepter to him.

Agent Hill had been especially concerned by the developments. Over the last day, she had split her time almost equally between installing the new sensors, and investigating the terrorist attack. Hill saw a more sinister motive than mere profit or revenge against Tony Stark. She suspected that the attackers had gone there to take the scepter, and that a lucky scheduling conflict was the only reason why it wasn't already in their hands.

The thought of it was chilling, but Jane had to admit that something was off. After all, the few attackers who had survived Iron Man and War Machine's intervention eventually silenced themselves with cyanide pills.

Whatever was going on had put Agent Hill even more on edge than usual. And that in turn hadn't made things any easier for all of the little people stuck with the task of setting up the new sensor system. Jane had spent the last few hours calibrating various subsystems, before monitoring their integration into a working whole. At least she wasn't stuck with the job of physically installing any of that crap.

"I want to say this is unbelievable," Agent Hill said. "But for you, it's par for the course."

Jane snapped out of her tired contemplation and spun around in her chair. She could tell that Agent Hill was pissed.

"Look, I'm sorry," Darcy said. "I don't even know what a spectoometer is."

"You don't know what anything is," Hill said. "You're lazy, you're disinterested, and you're _clumsy_ to boot. You've got a political science degree, but none of the drive needed to succeed in politics or anywhere else. I'd tell you to go flip burgers for a living, but even that might be asking too much of you." She paused and exhaled in frustration. "By the way, it's pronounced ' _spectrometer_.'"

"Okay," Darcy said, "now you're just being mean."

"Darcy, she's not trying to be mean," Jane said in an attempt to defuse the situation. Her spine stiffened as she saw Agent Hill turn and glare her. "She's...she's just stressed. We all are. But we're so close. Let's all just calm down and get it done. Okay?"

Hill turned back to Darcy. "You should thank Jane. She's the only reason you still have a job."

Her cell phone rang, and Hill cut the conversation short to answer it. "What's going on, Sitwell?" Her face twisted into a scowl as she listened to the agent on the other end. "He went to New York? Then send it to New York! I want extra security there as well. Tell Stark he needs to get to work already." Hill hung up sighed. "Ugh, this guy," she said before she stormed out of the command center.

"Finally," Darcy said as she picked up a processing unit from the floor. "Couldn't concentrate with all her yelling." She turned to the massive, partially assembled supercomputer in front of her and stared. "Hmm..." Darcy stepped forward to insert the processor into the supercomputer's interior, which was dark and cluttered with cables. Unsure of herself, she pulled back and turned the component over before she went to install it in another direction.

"Crap," she said as she aborted that attempt as well. Darcy anxiously looked at the processor, and then at all of the other workers around her. Finally, she gave up and turned back to Jane. "I don't think you want me touching the million dollar equipment."

"Good call," Jane said. She nodded at Darcy, who put the processor down and sulked back to her own desk. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it." Jane groaned and looked down. Hours ago, she had pushed herself and others to get through this task quickly, so that she could return to her regular research projects. Now, she just wanted to survive long enough to finish it. _I need a drink_ , she thought as she reached into her drawer for another Red Bull. She was all out.

Willing herself back up, Jane walked over to the supercomputer and went through the tedious process of putting it all together. After physically completing the computer, she returned to her desk and began working on the software. After another two hours, the system finally appeared to be finished. Agent Hill and all of the other command center personnel returned to begin operations.

"Tell me it's working," Hill said.

"Satellite downlink is active," Jane replied. "Receiving data streams from all twenty-four ground installations."

Her computer screen filled with information, just like the screens being used by the other seven people assigned to monitor duty there. Each of them watched over several spectrometers, with multiple overlaps in responsibilities. Their job was to analyze the information at their own workstations and mark locations. Anything out of the ordinary was to be marked on the big viewscreen mounted on the wall in front of them, which displayed a map of the entire planet. Several minutes went by without incident, until a few spots began to pop up on the map.

"Ooh, there's something in New Mexico," Darcy said.

"That's a testing ground for the Army," Hill replied. Her tone made it clear that her patience was already wavering. "It's good."

"What about this thing in the Adirondacks?" Darcy asked.

"That's another Army research center," Hill said. "You really should familiarize yourself with what's out there."

"Sorry," Darcy said as she lowered her head.

Jane turned and looked at her. "Just sit back, Darcy," she said, trying to save her friend from further embarrassment. "It's alright."

Darcy looked back at her screen, seemingly undeterred. "Hmm. Does the Army test gamma weapons in Rome?"

"Rome?" Hill asked. She looked upon that spot on the map and froze.

Jane could see her mouthing a curse word. Seeing Hill like that scared her as well.

"Contact Rogers and Romanoff," Hill said to the agent standing next to her. "Tell them they've got a new mission."

_**Come back for Chapter 3: Lost and Found** _

_**Captain America and the Black Widow are next!** _


	3. Lost and Found

Steve Rogers leaned back in his airplane seat with his eyes closed. Just hours ago, he had been on a mission in the southwestern edge of Sicily. He and a SHIELD assault team had been sent there to shut down an arms factory run by the crime syndicate known as the Maggia. Steve didn't know anything about them, except that they were selling high tech weapons to everyone ranging from Third World dictators to terrorist groups such as the Ten Rings.

Though Steve and his team snuck into the factory with ease, they were forced to reveal themselves when they saw several crates of weapons ready to ship out. The fight went well for them at first. The Maggia goons were caught off guard, and they didn't offer much resistance.

But then one of them activated the weapons, which turned out to be Dreadnought robots designed with technology stolen from Tony Stark himself. The battle turned ugly, and Steve couldn't believe it when his team actually won. It was a miracle that none of his men had been killed.

They returned to a nearby safe house to recover. Steve had just taken a shower when Agent Natasha Romanoff arrived with orders to pick him up for yet another mission. SHIELD didn't want to send any of the other men there. According to Natasha, "those men need to rest." She had only wanted him. Captain America.

_Didn't even get to eat_ , Steve thought. He felt stupid for actually looking forward to the weekend. Captain America didn't get weekends. He was on call twenty-four seven as a living symbol of liberty, justice, and American fighting power. This was his life now: flying between hotspots to stomp out the enemies of freedom wherever they might be.

Things were just as they had been during the war, when he had rooted out the Red Skull's factories all over Europe. Except that they weren't. He had a team back then. A _real_ team. Not just temporary assignments with SHIELD agents whom he didn't know and would never socialize with outside of the job.

He used to have Bucky, God rest his soul. His friend's body had never been found, even after almost seventy years. Steve tightened his fist and closed his eyes even harder. _Don't do this again_ , he thought to himself. It wasn't healthy to dwell on the past. He had to think about happier things.

Happier things like Peggy Carter. Steve recalled how she had walked into that London bar in her provocative red dress. She told him that she wanted to go dancing, but the two of them never got a chance to plan their date until later. Later, as he was flying the Red Skull's Valkyrie bomber down into the frozen waters of the Arctic.

"A week, next Saturday, at the Stork Club," she told him over the radio. "Eight o'clock on the dot. Don't you dare be late."

Steve remembered every one of those words, despite the wind that had been blasting against his face through the Valkyrie's broken window, and the way that aircraft had been trembling on its way down into the ice. Trembling, like the one he was on right now...

"Hey! You okay over there?"

His head snapped forward as he opened his eyes. There wasn't any wind in his face, or icy terrain fast approaching before his eyes. All he saw was the empty seat in front of him.

"It was just a little turbulence," Natasha said.

Steve noticed her right hand clasping his shoulder. It felt good, and it helped to calm him down. "Yeah," he said as he turned to look at her. "I know." He still wasn't fine, but he nodded at her anyway.

Natasha nodded as well, before she let go of him and spoke into the smartphone in her left hand. "Clint. Clint, it's not a good time. I'm on a mission...Yes, another one...I know...Listen. I'll see you when I get back. Bye." She sighed as she hung up, before she looked at him and smiled. "We're almost there."

He looked into her eyes, and he wanted to smile in return. Before he could do so, she turned away again to look through some files on her phone. Natasha was hard to make sense of. Steve thought that they had connected during the Battle of New York, as comrades if nothing else. But after that, he had barely seen her again for almost a month.

Now that they were together, he didn't know what they were. There were moments when Natasha seemed so friendly to him. But as soon as he did anything to reciprocate, she would revert to her usual cool and businesslike demeanor. Steve hoped that he wasn't doing anything wrong.

* * *

Jane Foster sat in the corner of the break room with her laptop and her printouts, working even as she waited for the coffee maker to brew another pot. The three SHIELD agents in the room with her were all chatting about the day they had ahead of them. Jane kept to herself though. Not because she hadn't slept all night, but because she needed to concentrate.

If it were up to her, she would have stayed in the command center where she could have kept working on the situation. But after she had almost collapsed from her caffeine deficiency, even Agent Hill thought that she needed to rest.

_What does she know?_ Jane thought. She understood that monitoring the sensors wasn't supposed to be her regular duty. She hadn't even wanted the job of setting those things up. But now that they had found something, she didn't want to let go. She knew how to analyze the nuances of those sensor readings, and she was confident in her abilities. The young, newly trained technicians who had taken her place in the command center didn't inspire the same level of confidence in her.

The gamma signature in Rome had disappeared after the brief spike that Darcy had detected several hours ago. Since then, there had been no new alerts at the base. Jane didn't know if that was good or bad. She wondered what the current shift of newbie sensor technicians was failing to see.

_Be nice_ , Jane thought to herself. It was hard for her to hand anything over once she had started with it. She didn't put so much time and effort into her work just to be like everyone else. She loved her job. It was her life. And a lifetime of scientific learning had taught her the value of digging deeper into things.

Both Stark's sensor network, and Banner's solution before it, focused on the detection of gamma radiation. That was despite the fact that gamma rays were merely a byproduct of the Tesseract, and presumably any similar devices that could facilitate another invasion.

What the Tesseract really did was open a channel through space, through which vast amounts of dark energy could flow. Dark energy, that mysterious phenomenon that scientists barely grasped despite the fact that it made up an estimated seventy percent of the universe's matter-energy content. Until recently, it wasn't anything more than a hypothetical explanation. _Something_ to credit with the fact that the universe's expansion was speeding up, rather than slowing down eons after the Big Bang.

Dark energy was very real, and it was the key to interplanetary travel. Despite that, its properties were still so poorly understood that there was no practical way to detect it from great distances around the world. That was why even men like Bruce Banner and Tony Stark had to resort to chasing after gamma rays instead. And when that avenue was closed off, as it had been several hours ago, SHIELD was rendered blind.

Jane didn't know much about dark energy either, but she had studied its environmental effects and seen some of them firsthand. She thought back to that fateful night in New Mexico when she had first encountered Thor. Dark energy caused atmospheric disturbances. Short-lived tornadoes. Lights in the sky. Tremors. Heat flares. Magnetic fluctuations.

She had been on the lookout for reports of similar effects throughout the world, hoping to find another wormhole like the one that had first brought Thor to her. Her search had been long, and it eventually drained her after almost a year and a half without results. She never saw any more wormholes, until Loki and the Chitauri invaded.

Thor also came back to stop them, and Jane caught glimpses of him while watching live news coverage of the battle. She and Darcy held each other's hands as they sat in front of her television, gripped with fear and worry about the outcome. She was so proud when Thor and the other Avengers finally saved New York.

But then he took Loki and vanished from her life once again without even bothering to see her. Jane had been left confused about her feelings and her knowledge of the universe. Confusion was all Thor had left her with, besides a lot of new work.

Her problem over the past year was that she had been looking for signs of new wormholes. But what if a Tesseract-like device hadn't gone all the way yet? What if there were preexisting weak spots in the fabric of space that could be pulled apart to create wormholes, but were still intact?

Smaller amounts of dark energy could still potentially leak through those weak spots, resulting in many of the same effects that she had searched for before. Those effects would just happen on a much smaller scale, making them easier to mistake for normal fluctuations in the Earth's natural systems. Occasionally though, some of the leakages and their resultant effects could be bigger than others.

The idea seemed so obvious, but even Jane hadn't thought of it until now. There were always new ways to approach the problem, even if they weren't apparent at first. Such was the nature of her work.

For the last several hours, she had pored over vast amounts of meteorological and seismic data over the years, looking for any patterns of inconsistencies. This was a difficult – some would say fruitless – task, focused on finding things that stood out from the norm but not by too much. Even Jane found it hard to decide which events should count. She simply marked spots on a map of the world where she _thought_ things might have been going on.

The printed map she had on the table was a cluttered mess of dots. If she were in a better state of mind, she would have been able to sort things out better than she was currently capable of. But she was dead tired, and unsure of how to integrate all of her findings even as she pressed on like a machine... _I got this_ , Jane thought to herself. She pushed her chair out and got up from the table.

_This drink, I like it. Another!_

Jane shook her head to clear it as she saw Thor smashing his coffee cup on the floor. The things that went through her mind when she was tired...

The three agents had already gotten up and beaten her to the coffee maker. Just one of the disadvantages of sitting in the corner on the other side of the room. _If I have to wait for another pot..._

Fortunately, there was just enough left in the pot for Jane to fill a cup for herself. She poured the coffee and stirred in some cream. But when she reached for a packet of sugar, she found that the container was empty. "You guys are killing me," she said to the agents. They just smiled and shrugged before they went back to their chat. Jane sighed as she bent down to get a new box of sugar packets from the cabinet.

"Aw, thanks, Jane."

Jane stood up in time to see Darcy picking up her coffee. Darcy poured a big gulp into her mouth, which she then spat right back out into the cup. "Ah! It's hot!"

"Darcy!" Jane raised her hand to point, but she stopped herself short from yelling. "It's coffee. Of course it's hot." She didn't have enough energy to be angry.

Her friend trudged over to the table in the corner, while Jane started yet another pot. "God," Darcy said. "How do they expect me to work on just five hours of sleep?"

"Yeah, it's ridiculous," Jane said as she sat down in front of her laptop again. She might as well get some work in while the pot brewed.

"Ooh, what's this?" Darcy said as she picked up one of her maps. "A puzzle?"

"Yeah. See if you can figure it out." That sheet was an extra copy that Jane had printed by accident. Jane handed Darcy a pencil to doodle with. Anything to keep her quiet and out of the way for a couple minutes.

Darcy took right to it like a girl playing connect the dots. Jane began to go through her notes again. She had thought that she was on to something when she had jotted down each of her notes. But looking over all of them now, they just didn't seem to make any sense. Maybe she was chasing windmills again, just like she had been while looking for Thor.

_Thor again_. Why did she keep thinking about him? Their relationship – if she could even call it that – had been so brief, and their base physical desire for each other had played no small part in it. Jane had even thought that he was a crazy homeless guy, up until the very end. A muscular, handsome, and charming crazy homeless guy.

_Very charming_ , Jane thought to herself, trying to settle on an excuse to justify her stupid whirlwind romance. Yes, despite a few rough edges, Thor had been quite charming. He said the right things and treated her with the utmost respect. There was just so much warmth and humor coming out of him when he talked to her.

Those were such small, simple things, but they weren't things that Jane was used to. She certainly hadn't seen them in her previous boyfriend, "Dr. Donald Blake." Don always wanted everyone, including her, to address him by that title. Darcy said that his initials stood for "douche bag." She even called him "Dr. Douche Bag" several times, including once to his face. Jane hadn't liked that at first. But after a couple months with him, she had found herself unable to disagree.

"Hello...Earth to Jane."

"What, Darcy?"

"When I connect the dots like this, three of the lines go through Rome."

Jane's eyes widened as she stared at the map. "I think you're on to something here."

* * *

"Name?" the hotel receptionist asked.

"Rushman," Natasha said. "Mr. and Mrs. Steven Rushman."

Steve paused for a second, thankful that he hadn't blurted out "Rogers" instead. Natasha gently elbowed him in the side, reminding him to take out his wallet. "Here," Steve said as he handed over his credit card and fake ID.

The receptionist took the cards and looked at a computer screen. Then he printed a sheet of paper and marked it with a blue pen, before he handed everything to Steve. "Sign right here," the man said as he pointed to a line near the bottom.

"Go ahead and sign it, Mr. _Rushman_ ," Natasha said. She had said that in a friendly tone, but Steve got her point quite clearly as he signed the paper.

Natasha was straining to be patient with him, and he couldn't blame her. He knew, or at least he hoped, that she respected his abilities. After all, she had deferred to him in New York a month ago. But he was a soldier, and big open battles were his domain. He was out of his element when it came to spy work.

This was Natasha's world, and she navigated it with complete confidence. She had made him drive their car out of the airport to keep up appearances, but she had told him exactly where and when to turn. Natasha knew Rome and the surrounding area like the back of her hand. The last time Steve had been near the city, he had been supporting a massive Allied invasion force. He hadn't had much time to slow down and take in the scenery.

Not that it would have done him any good now. The place had changed so much since then. Their hotel, which was in the general vicinity of the gamma signature detected by SHIELD, stood in a relatively new business district south of the historic city center. The area hadn't even existed until after the war. Steve was literally older than the entire district.

"We hope you enjoy your stay." The receptionist handed over a pair of keycards.

"Thank you," Natasha said as she gave him a bright smile. "We will."

Steve slipped his keycard into his wallet and pulled his roller bag into the hotel atrium. The place was big and well decorated, with rows of planted trees and a fountain in the center of it all. There was a small restaurant on the side, along with a bar. Elevators led from the atrium up into the floors where the guest rooms were. Steve could see several guests on the floors above, leaning over the rails and looking down at him.

The place was beautiful, but he didn't belong there. The bag in which he hid his vibranium shield dangled awkwardly from the side of his roller as he walked. _I'm carrying too much_ , he thought as he felt the big M1911A1 pistol underneath his suit jacket. Even that finely pressed designer suit made him feel uncomfortable.

"Hey, Natasha?"

"It's Natalie here."

"Sorry...Natalie. I'll, uh, meet you upstairs. Think I'll grab a bite to eat first."

"Fine. Let me bring your things up at least." She reached over and took his roller and shield. "You remember our room number?"

Steve reached into his pocket for the paper it was written on.

"It's nine eighty-two," she said. "And make it a quick bite, okay?"

"Sure," Steve said. He watched Natasha make her way to the elevator, before he turned and walked toward the restaurant. _She's just looking out for me_ , he thought. He knew that he shouldn't be so concerned with what she thought of him.

"You look lonely," a woman said with an Italian accent.

Steve turned around and froze as he saw a beautiful woman staring at him from the bar. She had lush, flowing blonde hair that fell almost to her waist. Her facial features were soft, but she also had catlike eyes and a bewitching smile that gave her a seductive edge. Steve noticed all of that, before he even realized how good her body looked in her strapless, low cut cocktail dress.

"Don't be shy," the woman said. She raised her index finger and curled it in to beckon him.

"I'm, uh, hi..." Steve shut his mouth to keep from saying anything stupid as he walked up to her.

The woman stayed on her feet, waiting for him to arrive. She was almost six feet tall, without counting the high heels that she was wearing. Steve didn't know many women who could stand up and look him eye to eye.

"Relax. Let's sit down."

They took their seats, and the bartender came over and spoke with the woman in Italian.

"What'd you order?" Steve asked.

"A cosmopolitan for me. Vodka martini for you."

"Huh. Thanks." He didn't know many drinks besides "beer."

"Tell me about yourself. What are you doing in Rome?"

Steve breathed in as he saw her reaching forward to touch his hand on the counter. "I, I'm here on business." He forced himself to look up at her face, but that only weakened his defenses even more.

"What kind of business?"

"I don't really understand it myself. Just got out of the Army."

"The Army?" the woman asked as she placed her other hand on her chest. "I love a man in uniform."

"I'm not wearing my uniform..."

"You don't need to be wearing anything at all."

Steve picked up his martini and took a sip. He wanted to look away, but he couldn't. This wasn't going to end well. Or maybe it was going to end _too well_. "I really shouldn't. My job..."

"Your job again. You're making me curious."

"It's really not that interesting."

"Well I'm interested. Why don't you tell me about it upstairs?"

_Holy crap_ , Steve thought as he took another sip. He didn't know why he bothered with that. It wasn't as if the alcohol could do anything for him. He was just grasping around for anything to do, besides saying yes. "Uh..." His phone suddenly rang. Steve almost jumped out of his seat, before he pulled the phone out and answered it.

"Just a bite to eat?" Natasha asked.

"Sorry. I got sidetracked."

"Upstairs, _now_ ," Natasha said, right before she hung up.

"Who was that?" the blonde asked.

"That was my...girlfriend."

"You have a girlfriend?" she asked. Her lovely face pouted with disappointment.

"Yeah," Steve said, nodding as he got up from his seat. _I wish_.

He quickly turned away and walked straight into the nearest elevator. Steve knew how Natasha would look, even before he found her glaring at him outside their room. "You were watching me the whole time?" he asked.

"Get inside." Natasha stood with her arms crossed, forcing Steve to walk up and open the door himself. Steve didn't dare say anything as he walked into the room. The door had barely closed behind him when Natasha reached up and slapped him on the back of his head. "What the hell was that, Steve?"

"It was just a drink."

"I've done it enough to know when it's more than 'just a drink.'" Natasha shook her head as she walked past him into the middle of the room. "What's rule number one when you travel undercover?"

"I don't know," Steve said. He really didn't.

"You don't pick up random strangers in bars."

"I wasn't trying to pick her up," Steve said. "By the way, is that really rule number one?"

"Don't even," Natasha said as she pointed at him. "She could be an enemy agent for all you know. You even think about that?"

"Alright, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sat down with her. But really, what are the chances of her being a spy?"

"It doesn't matter if she's a spy, or just someone looking to hook up," Natasha said. She paused and glanced at her luggage, which was lying against the wall. "She can still hurt you either way." With that, she turned and went to unpack her things. "I mean, a woman dressed like that –"

"You dress like that sometimes."

"I didn't say I was any good for you." Natasha kept going through her gear without looking up at him.

Steve took off his suit jacket and draped it over a chair before he went to unpack as well. Despite Natasha's words, he still trusted her judgment more than his own.

_**The mission continues! What will they find in Rome?** _

_**Come back and see in Chapter 4: Whatever it Takes** _


End file.
